Tesla concept sketch and artist render of smaller hatchback, courtesy of Reddit user u/partialedecelerator
At the European Battery Conference organized by the Federal Ministry of Economics, Tesla CEO Elon Musk spoke about the company’s plans at Gigafactory Berlin.
Aside from creating the world’s largest battery factory in Grünheide, on top of its Tesla vehicle production plant, the company will also utilize its latest 4680 battery cells for its upcoming Tesla Semi truck to achieve the possible range of 1,000 kilometres or 621 miles.
In the video of the interview seen below, when asked about what original vehicles will be made at Gigafactory Berlin and Shanghai (around the 18-minute mark), Musk went into further detail.
“I think there’s just a lot of talent and talented designers and engineers in Europe of course, and I think for a lot of the best people, they really want to work somewhere where they’re doing original design work,” said Musk.
“They don’t want to be just doing just the European version of something designed in California. So I think it’s important to attract the best talent to do original design,” detailed the CEO.
“And I think possibly in Europe it would make sense to do, I guess, a compact car, perhaps a hatchback or something like that…and something like what do most people want in a given region,” said Musk.
Musk detailed in the US cars are bigger for personal taste reasons and in Europe it tends to be smaller. So he added, “if you’re trying to park in a dense urban environment, having a car that actually fits in a parking space easily is important.”
“We were driving a Model X around Berlin and we had quite a bit of trouble to find a parking space that would fit,” laughed Musk.
Concluding, Musk said creating an original compact car such as a hatchback “would probably be a good candidate for original design, but I’m sure there will be others as well,” he teased. “That might be the wise place to start.”
The Tesla CEO also said the company needs to create a car that “people can afford and fits their lifestyle and everything.”
“I’m excited to do original design in Europe,” emphasized Musk, who woke up at 2AM PST in California to speak with the online audience in Germany.
Tesla had previously teased at Battery Day it was planning a $25,000 vehicle in three years (Elon time). It’s also not the first time we’ve heard of Musk talking about an original design for Europe, but it’s always fascinating and exciting to hear the CEO reiterate the company’s plans for the future.
